Mentoring is a truly fulfilling experience for me. As a early career
scientist, I find immense joy in guiding and motivating the next
generation of researchers. Through mentoring, I get to share not only my
expertise but also the valuable lessons I have learned throughout my own
journey. It is an opportunity to nurture students passion and curiosity,
helping them grow into confident new scientist. It is more that me
teaching them, they teach me new things every day. {style=“text-align:
justify;”}
Below I list graduate and undergraduate students that have developed
research projects under my mentorship. {style=“text-align:
justify;”}
Graduate mentees
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Daniel graduated from EAFIT University in Colombia. Hi is starting
his master’s at Uppsala University in August 2025. I am mentoring Daniel
on a project focused on characterizing bacterial pathogen diversity in
bats. Daniel is using bioinformatic tools to explore nanopore sequences
in order to identify pathogenic bacteria in multiple species of bats
from Ecuador. Other collaborators in this project include Jocelyn
Colella, Ben Wiens, and Alexander Hey. |
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Danielle graduated and did her master’s at University of New Mexico.
She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Kansas. I have
been mentoring Danielle on a project focused on understanding Asian
Biogeography using shrews as a model. Danielle is using a set of tools,
including ecological niche modeling, to explore current and past
landscapes of suitability for shrews as a way to understand historical
processes that shaped the biodiversity patterns that are observed
nowadays. Other collaborators in these projects include Joe Cook and
Jocelyn Colella. |
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Kenzie graduated from University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, and
did her master’s at Northern Michigan University. She is currently a
Ph.D. student at the University of Kansas. Kenzie’s project goal is to
identify strategies to improve models to characterize ecological
requirements and distributions of parasites. Her project aims to define
protocols that allow better integration of natural history and
ecological considerations when modeling parasite niches and
distributions. Other collaborators in these projects include Kurt
Galbreath and Jocelyn Colella. |
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Luis Felipe graduated from Universidad de Córdoba, and did his
master’s at Universidad de Valecia in Spain. He is currently a
Ph.D. student at the Spanish National Research Council. Luis Felipe
visited KU and since then I have been mentoring him on a project focused
on developing innovative methods and statistical tools for comprehensive
ecological niche modeling using presence absence records. The methods
and tools developed are generally applicable and will be soon available
as a new R package, enmpa. An application of these methods
lead by Luis is focused geographically in Andalusia, Spain, where he is
modeling risks derived from the fungus Verticillium dahliae to
Olive and Cotton plantations. Other collaborators in these projects
include Blanca Landa, Juan Navas-Cortés, and Town Peterson. |
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Weverton graduated from Universidade de Coimbra, and did his
master’s at Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa in Brazil. He recently
obtained his Ph.D. at Universidade Federal do Paraná. Weverton is now a
postdoc at at Universidade Federal do Paraná and we keep collaborating.
We met when Weverton came to KU as a research visitor and started
working on an independent project focused on improving model selection
routines for ecological niche modeling. The routines Weverton is
developing can be applied to studies using ENM methods for a more robust
selection of model parameters. These tools will available soon as part
of a new version of the R package kuenm. Other
collaborators in these projects include Luis F. Arias-Giraldo, Luis
Osorio-Olvera, Jorge Soberón, and Town Peterson. |
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Abby graduated from the University of Kansas. She is currently in
the Peterson lab doing her Master’s in the EEB Department at KU. Abby is
working on a project exploring new alternatives to deal with spatial
autocorrelation in ecological niche modeling. Her work will be
implemented in new routines for ENM calibration to help researchers
control the effect of sampling biases in models. Other collaborators in
this project include Weverton Trindade and Town Peterson. |
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